Supreme Court News
In-depth reporting and commentary on the Court’s rulings and their influence on law, politics, and society.
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opinion
What You Need to Know About the Transgender Case at the Supreme Court
This interview, which is lightly edited, originally aired on “Problematic Women.” Lauren Evans: Welcome back. Virginia and I are in the studio today with religious liberty superstar Emilie Kao. Emilie is an attorney and director of the Richard and Helen DeVos Center for Religion and Civil Society at The Heritage Foundation and has spent the past… -
news
Justices Return for a Momentous Supreme Court Term
The Supreme Court returns from its summer hiatus Monday to begin an election year term heavy on politically salient disputes. The high court’s docket for the coming months is a genuine gantlet of highly polarizing disputes that could make the relative comity of its previous term impossible to replicate. The justices will decide by June… -
opinion
What’s at Stake in Supreme Court’s ‘Sex Discrimination’ Case
This week, the Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in cases that ask whether Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which bans employment discrimination on the basis of sex, extends to discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and transgender status. It’s an odd legal argument, given that the public meaning of the… -
news
Federal Judge Upholds Harvard’s Race-Conscious Admissions Policy
A federal judge in Boston ruled Tuesday that Harvard’s race-conscious admissions policy does not violate the law, following a challenge alleging the university discriminates against Asian applicants. U.S. District Judge Allison Burroughs emphasized the university has a compelling interest in cultivating a diverse campus community, and that Harvard’s practices, though imperfect, are narrowly tailored to… -
news
Justice Elena Kagan Has a Message for Those Who Worry Supreme Court Is Becoming Too Partisan
Justice Elena Kagan said Monday night that concerns about the politicization of the Supreme Court are “overblown," pushing back against suggestions that the court’s increasingly conservative makeup will strain public confidence in the judiciary. Kagan told law students at the University of California, Berkeley, not to despair over current conditions, even as she agreed the… -
news
Florist Hopes Supreme Court Will Affirm Her Right to Turn Down Order for Gay Wedding
A Christian legal group that specializes in religious liberty has asked the Supreme Court to reconsider the case of a florist who declined to provide flower arrangements for a same-sex wedding. In June, the Washington state Supreme Court again ruled against Barronelle Stutzman, a businesswoman and great-grandmother who has said her faith did not allow… -
opinion
When the Supreme Court Is Right to Overturn Precedent
Supreme Court justices need a healthy respect for past precedents. But sometimes, precedent is so bad it simply has to be overturned. The court did just that last month in the case of Knick v. Township of Scott. The court delivered a victory for champions of property rights by overturning a 1985 precedent that had… -
news
Retired Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens Dies at 99
Retired Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens, the war hero and Republican corporate lawyer who became the leader of the court’s liberal wing, died Tuesday night in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. He was 99. The Supreme Court’s public information office said Stevens died from complications of a stroke suffered earlier in the day. “A son of… -
news
A Year After the Supreme Court Rules Against Unions, What’s Changed
Pick a state, any state where rank-and-file public employees differ with the political agenda of their union leadership, and they can make a clean break from the union if they choose. That’s because the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that nonunion government workers can’t be compelled to pay dues or other fees to support a union…. -
opinion
‘Rotating’ Supreme Court Justices Would Be Unconstitutional
Efforts to turn judges from impartial umpires into political operatives confirm the axiom that those who cannot remember the past are doomed to repeat it. The Declaration of Independence lists actions by King George III that justified separating from Great Britain. The king, for example, had “made Judges dependent on his Will alone for the… -
news
The Supreme Court Announces It Will Hear DACA Case
The Supreme Court will decide whether President Donald Trump can rescind the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program during its next term, the justices announced Friday. DACA is an Obama-era amnesty initiative that extends temporary legal status to 700,000 foreign nationals who came to the U.S. as children. The Department of Homeland Security first took… -
opinion
Why the Supreme Court Got It Right on Gerrymandering
In a much-awaited decision, the Supreme Court held on Thursday in a 5-4 decision that partisan gerrymandering is a political question beyond the reach of the federal courts. This should come as no surprise, since it’s the same conclusion the court reached the last time this issue was before it in 2004 in a case… -
news
New Supreme Court Ruling May Start Checking Power of Federal Bureaucrats
On Wednesday, the Supreme Court issued its highly anticipated ruling in Kisor v. Wilkie, a case challenging judicial deference to administrative agencies’ interpretation of their own regulations. While all nine members of the court agreed that the lower court was wrong to reflexively defer to the agency in this case, a majority was unwilling to… -
news
In Gerrymandering Case, Supreme Court Rules It’s a Matter for Lawmakers, Not Judges
In a new decision, the Supreme Court determined partisan gerrymandering disputes are a political question, not something federal courts should be deciding. In a 5-4 ruling Thursday, the high court decided in a pair of cases regarding gerrymandering—which is the practice of state legislatures drawing up districts for congressional and state legislative seats to benefit… -
opinion
Supreme Court Deserves Praise for Reversing Itself on Takings Clause
Our constitutional system assumes that federal courts serve to remedy an injustice created by officials in the legislative and executive branches. Unfortunately, federal courts, even the Supreme Court, sometimes are responsible for creating an injustice. Thirty years ago, the Supreme Court did that for property owners in Regional Planning Commission v. Hamilton Bank of Johnson… -
opinion
Supreme Court Misses Opportunity to Stop Congress Outsourcing Its Power
Almost a year ago, we asked, “How much authority can Congress give to the attorney general to effectively write criminal laws?” In Gundy v. United States, a plurality of the Supreme Court has given its answer: as much as Congress wants to give. The plurality opinion, which was written by Justice Elena Kagan, was joined… -
news
Justice Ginsburg Hints at Outcome of Supreme Court’s Biggest Cases
Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg suggested Friday that the Supreme Court is deeply divided over its most-watched cases, hinting that a series of 5-4 decisions are likely as the court approaches the end of its current term. Ginsburg said to the 2nd Circuit Judicial Conference the court was unlikely to achieve consensus on several high-profile matters…. -
news
Christian Florist Will Appeal to the Supreme Court in Same-Sex Wedding Dispute
A florist who refused to create floral arrangements for a same-sex wedding will appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court after a Washington state court ruled Thursday that she violated the state’s civil rights law. The case presents the high court with an opportunity to decide whether conservative religious believers can use the First Amendment as… -
opinion
Supreme Court Rejects Case On Transgender Bathrooms. Here’s Why It’s Still a Huge Issue.
The Supreme Court rejected a case regarding school policy in a district which allows transgender students to use bathrooms of their choice. On Tuesday, the Supreme Court denied cert to Doe v. Boyertown Area School District, a case concerning a gender identity bathroom and locker room policy at a Pennsylvania high school. In declining to… -
news
Supreme Court Declines Review of Transgender Bathroom Case
The United States Supreme Court declined to review a case Tuesday involving a Pennsylvania school district opening up bathrooms to students of the opposite sex without informing students or parents. The Supreme Court declined to take up Doe v. Boyertown Area School District, a lawsuit that alleges the school violated students’ fundamental right to bodily privacy….